Astator
About Astator is the furthest east of the People's settlements. A large city built overlooking the ocean, it was settled early and remains the biggest, most sprawling of the People's towns. Tribe The Astator are one of the oldest tribes, and their coastal city is accordingly steeped in history. They settled near the coast in approximately 1400 BU, and began building. While the other tribes were wandering around the plains, establishing territories and fighting each other for farmlands, the Astator were building a city and learning to construct small fishing boats to sail out into the sea. They soon discovered the unforgiving nature of the ocean, and some fishermen began setting up small shrines where they could pray for clement conditions, or a good catch. They discovered a small chain of islands just off the coast in 800 BU, which were soon settled by fishermen and their families. There was quite a varied community on the islands, as the early settlers began forming their own way of life. There are a few records from around that time, badly damaged, that seem to refer to strange visitors to the islands. These ‘visitors’ would apparently stay for a short while, learning a little about the People’s ways, then vanish into thin air never to be seen again. The few documents that have survived describe these visitors as 'tall, thin men and women with green skin and pointed ears', which most scholars today believe refers to the reclusive elves who live in the hills surrounding the Farm Valley. The island communities endured for three centuries, until a rise in sea levels sank them. Thankfully, the Astator had enough warning that they could evacuate their people before the islands flooded. They worked in conjunction with the Tewen tribe, who had developed a reasonably accurate way of predicting when natural events would occur, based on the movements of the stars. The former islanders resettled in a string of small fishing villages along the coastline near the city, where they remain today. The city itself has retained many of its oldest buildings fairly intact; unlike most other towns, where much of the history has been demolished to make way for newer constructions. One of the oldest buildings in Astator is the ancient Coastal Tower, built in 1373 BU, high up on the cliffs overlooking the sea. Originally used as a lookout, it became a lighthouse shortly after the Coral Maiden was wrecked just off the shoreline in 1292 BU, costing 93 sailors and fishermen their lives. It was rebuilt in 1248 BU, when the original wooden structure completely burned down because of an unattended signal fire. Hewn rock and stone were used in the reconstruction, and it has remained much the same since, barring minor repair works. A recent addition to the Tower is a small shrine to the child goddess Aikra-Lora, built in to the lower portion of the western-facing wall by one of her travelling priestesses. The golden Clock Tower is easily the most impressive building in the city, doubling as a clandestine place of worship for the goddess Alrin-Fora. It was first built from wood and stone, in 629 BU, and the clock mechanism had to be wound manually every morning. When first built, it was used mainly as a meeting hall for the Chief and his council, plus the offices of a small group of clerks who would often assist the town watch with issues of lawbreaking. When the Chief’s Halls were built in 591 BU, the ground floor of the tower was taken over by Alrin-Fora’s high priestess and became a small temple. The ‘litigators’, as the clerks had become known, had the clock mechanism updated to a self-winding one in 588 BU, as they had become tired of having to wind it every morning. The wooden parts of the structure became infested with woodworm shortly afterwards, meaning the clock tower was closed down for repairs in the later half of that year. Once the wood had been removed and replaced with stone, the clerks and priestesses moved back in. The golden bell and roof were added from temple funds in 475 BU, ‘in celebration of the birth of the Child’ according to temple records. Scholars believe this may be a reference to the birth of Aikra-Lora, who is the daughter of Alrin-Fora in the holy books.